The present invention relates to paper sheet containers arranged in the interior of automatic vending machines, money changing machines and games machines and in particular relates to a paper sheet container having detection means for detecting when the device is full of paper sheets.
In the interior of machines of various types such as automatic vending machines, money changing machines and games machines, there is typically provided a paper money container that accommodates paper money that has been inserted from a paper money insertion port in a stacker constituting a paper money accommodation section after payment adjustment.
A conventional paper money container as shown in FIG. 7, which is a schematic cross-sectional view of the main part thereof, comprises paper money guiding unit 43 wherein paper money 31 fed into a paper money container 41 is pressed into a stacker 42 by means of a pressing plate 43a and a motor 44 that drives the paper money guiding device 43.
Of these, the paper money guiding unit 43 is arranged at the end of the paper money feed path and link 47 comprising a pantograph arm is pivoted on a pressing plate 43a thereof. Furthermore, an eccentric cam 46 is mounted on the rotary shaft of the motor 44 so that when the motor 44 is driven, the eccentric cam 46 is rotated, driving the link 47 and thereby moving the pressing plate 43a of the paper feed guiding unit 43 in parallel fashion towards the stacker 42.
The pressing plate 43a is constantly biased towards the eccentric cam 46 by biasing means, not shown, with the result that when the motor 44 is driven, the pressing plate 43a executes reciprocating motion as shown by an arrow W.
With such a conventional paper money container 41, when the paper money 31 inserted from the paper money insertion port, not shown, is fed along the paper money feed path and arrives at the end thereof, the paper money 31 is arranged on the right-hand side of the pressing plate 43a and both edges thereof are respectively fitted and inserted into paper money guides 48. When the motor 44 is then driven, as shown in FIG. 7, the pressing plate 43a of the paper money guiding unit 43 is moved in parallel fashion towards the stacker 42 causing approximately the middle in the width direction of the paper money 31 to be pressed so that the paper money 31 is guided towards the stacker 42. When both edges of the paper money 31 escape from the paper money guides 48, the paper money 31 is accommodated in the stacker 42.
After the paper money 31 has been accommodated in the stacker 42, the pressing plate 43a returns to the initial position by being driven in parallel fashion towards the eccentric cam 46 by the motor 44.
Details of the paper money accommodating action of the paper money guiding unit 43 are disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 60-77287. The reference symbol 49 is a spring that constantly biases the paper money 31 arranged in the stacker 42 towards the pressing plate with the aid of a plate 50.
The current value in the motor 44 that performs the paper money accommodating action changes with time due to the characteristics of the motor 44 itself and the load of the paper money accommodating action.
FIG. 8 is a time chart showing the operating condition of the motor 44 in the paper money accommodating action and the control unit, etc. (to be described later) in the paper money container 41, showing in particular the changes of a detection signal stored in the control unit, a CARRY signal that indicates the paper money accommodation action by the paper money guiding unit 43 and the current value that is applied to the motor 44.
The horizontal axis towards the right-hand side of the drawing in FIG. 8 indicates the time axis, in which a passage of time is indicated as it moves along the time axis to the right-hand side in the drawing. In the current waveform of the motor 44, the vertical axis represents the magnitude of the current value.
With this conventional paper money container 41 (FIG. 7), when the paper money 31 reaches the end of the paper money feed path, the motor 44 is started and the paper money accommodating action is commenced by the pressing plate 43a as described above. At this point, a considerable load due to factors such as the inertial force due to the rotor acts on the motor 44 immediately after start-up. As a result, this current value rises abruptly after start-up of the motor 44, as shown by a peak A of the current waveform of the motor 44 shown in FIG. 8.
Also, after the peak A, the current first drops as the motor 44 is shifting to steady operation. However, on the other hand, the current value of the motor 44 again rises as shown by the peak B of the current waveform of the motor 44 of FIG. 8, since the paper money 31 is pressed into the stacker 42 with the aid of the pressing plate 43a and load for causing the paper money 31 to escape from the paper guides 48 (FIG. 7) is applied to the motor 44.
When the paper money 31 escapes from the paper money guides 48 (FIG. 7) and is accommodated in the stacker 42, the pressing plate 43a returns to the initial position and at this point load for enabling the paper money 31 to escape from the paper money guides 48 is no longer applied to the motor 44. The current value of the motor 44 therefore drops as shown by the current waveform of the motor 44 after the peak B of FIG. 8.
It should be noted that the peak B of FIG. 8 indicates the current value of the motor 44 immediately prior to the escape of the paper money 31 from the paper money guides 48 (FIG. 7).
If now the stacker 42 (FIG. 7) accommodating the paper money 31 is not full, the pressing force by which the spring 49 presses the pressing plate 43a through the paper money 31 stacked and accommodated in the stacker 42 is small, so the load of the spring 49 applied to the motor 44 through the pressing plate 43a is small. Consequently, the current applied to the motor 44 drops as shown by the current waveform after the peak B of FIG. 8.
On the other hand, if the stacker 42 (FIG. 7) of FIG. 1 is full, the pressing force by which the spring 49 presses the pressing plate 43a through the paper money 31 stacked and accommodated in the stacker 42 is large, with the result that a large load is again applied through the pressing plate 43a to the motor 44. Accordingly, when the current waveform of the motor 44 after the peak B of FIG. 8 is observed, it is found that the current value of the motor 44 rises abruptly as shown by the peak C of FIG. 9 in which portions that are identical with FIG. 8 are indicated by the same reference symbols.
The pressing plate 43a returns to the initial position after being pressed by the accommodated paper money, during which the load for making the paper money 31 escape from the paper money guides 48 is no longer applied to the motor 44. Thus, the current value of the motor 44 after the peak C of FIG. 9 drops as shown by the current waveform.
It should be noted that the peak C of FIG. 9 indicates the current value of the motor 44 immediately before the pressing plate 43a presses and accommodates the paper money 31 in the full stacker 42.
Whether the stacker 42 is full or not is arranged to be detected in the conventional paper money container 41 by utilizing this fluctuation of the current value of the motor 44 in the paper money accommodating action.
This full-state detecting unit that detects the full-state of the stacker 42 comprises current detection unit that detects the current value of the motor 44, control unit that determines in accordance with the detected current value of the motor 44 whether the stacker is full or not and paper money accommodating action detection unit that detects the commencement of the paper money accommodating action of the paper money guiding unit 43.
In this regard, the threshold level that is stored beforehand by the control unit shown in FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 is a fixed current value that is larger than the maximum current value indicated by the peak B detected in the course of the action of accommodating the paper money 31 and is smaller than the maximum current value indicated by the peak C that is displayed when the full condition of the stacker 42 is detected.
The control unit compares the detected current value of the motor 44 with the previously stored reference value. If the result of the comparison is that the detected current value of the motor 44 exceeds the reference value, the current value of the motor 44 as an electrical signal as indicated by the detection signals (comparator outputs) a and c of FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 is stored.
The detection signal a is the detection signal corresponding to the peak A generated initially on start-up of the motor 44 and the detection signal c is the detection signal corresponding to the peak C of the motor 44 when the stacker is in full condition.
Also, when the commencement of the paper money accommodating action is detected by the paper money accommodating action detection unit, the control unit turns the CARRY signal of FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 ON.
With the conventional full-state detecting unit constituted in this way, the control unit determines whether or not a detection signal has been stored therein in a prescribed time Ta after a lapse of the prescribed time S from the time point where the CARRY signal was turned ON. Then, as shown by the detection signal c of FIG. 9, if it determines that detection signal was stored in the prescribed time Ta, the control unit decides that the stacker 42 has become full and closes the paper money insertion port in question by driving a shutter of the paper money insertion port, not shown, so as to prevent subsequent acceptance of paper money 31.
On the other hand, if it is determined that a detection signal has not been stored in the prescribed time Ta, as shown in FIG. 8, it is decided that the stacker 42 is not full and, with the aid of the shutter, the control unit maintains the open condition of the paper money insertion port, to accept further paper money 31.
In the above full-state detection decision processing, the detection and decision of full-state are performed in the period excluding the period until the lapse of a prescribed time S from the start-up time point of the motor 44. The reason of this is to avoid erroneous decision on the full-state of the stacker 42 due to the fact that, as shown by the peak A of the motor 44 shown in FIG. 8 and FIG. 9, the current value of the motor 44 normally exceeds the reference value immediately after start-up, which is stored as the detection signal a, and if it is decided that the stacker 42 was full based on this detection signal a, it would be erroneously decided that the stacker 42 was full.
The paper money container sometimes deals with paper money of various types, such as so-called stiff paper money which is difficult to bend and highly flexible paper money which is likely to be bent.
Although conventional paper money containers 41 (FIG. 7) do handle such various types of paper money, if paper money that is stiffer than ordinary paper money 31 is to be accommodated in the stacker 42, a large load is temporarily applied to the motor 44 in order to cause the paper money to escape from the paper money guides 48.
FIG. 10 is a time chart showing in the same way as in the case of FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 the operating condition of the motor 44 and the control unit, etc. in the case where a stiff paper money is accommodated, parts which are the same as in the case of FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 being indicated by the same reference symbols.
As shown by the peak Bxe2x80x2 of the current waveform of the motor 44 in FIG. 10, when a stiff paper money is accommodated, a larger load is applied to the motor 44 for releasing the stiff paper money from the paper money guides 48 (FIG. 7) than in the case of an ordinary paper money 31, so the current value of the motor 44 during the process of the paper money accommodating action becomes even larger than the current value (peak B of FIG. 8 and FIG. 9) when the ordinary paper money 31 is accommodated. Also, the period Txe2x80x2 for the paper money accommodating action by the pressing plate 43a also becomes longer (Txe2x80x2 greater than T) than the time T for the paper money accommodating action for the ordinary paper money 31 (FIG. 8 and FIG. 9).
FIG. 10 also shows the condition when the stacker 42 is not full even after accommodation of the paper money, as shown by the current waveform of the motor 44, which drops after the peak Bxe2x80x2.
With the paper money container 41, there was the problem that, if the current value of the motor 44 becomes greater than or equal to the reference value (threshold level) during the paper money accommodating action in the prescribed time Ta as shown by the peak Bxe2x80x2 of the current waveform of the motor 44 of FIG. 10, since a detection signal bxe2x80x2 is stored in the control unit within the prescribed time Ta, even though a condition (not full) exists in which the paper money can still be accommodated in the stacker 42, the full-state detecting unit erroneously decides that the stacker 42 has become full and stops acceptance of paper money 31.
This problem of erroneous actuation of the full-state detection by handling paper money of various different types is also presented in the same way not merely for paper money containers but also for paper sheet containers (for example, coupon accommodating devices or gift token accommodating devices) that detect a condition of full-state of other types of sheets of paper (for example, coupons or gift tokens). In particular, there was a possibility of erroneous detection of full-state occurring during the accommodation action of accommodating new notes (paper money) or stiff sheets of paper (for example gift tokens, beer tokens or goods tokens).
In view of the above circumstances, an object of the present invention is to provide a paper sheet processing device that accommodates paper sheets of various different types, in which a smooth accommodating action can be performed, thanks to performance of an accurate full-state detection in respect of the accommodated paper sheets.
According to the present invention, in a paper sheet container comprising: paper sheet guiding unit that presses paper sheets that are fed thereto into a paper sheet accommodating section and that guides the paper sheets into the paper sheet accommodating section; a motor that drives the paper sheet guiding unit; and full-state detecting unit that detects the current value of the motor and determines whether or not the paper sheet accommodating section is full in accordance with whether or not this current value exceeds a reference value that is set beforehand, the full-state detecting unit stores a current value that exceeds the reference value as a detection signal and, of such stored detection signals, determines that the paper sheet accommodating section is full on the basis of a detection signal stored in a period of substantially the latter half of the period of the paper sheet accommodating action by the paper sheet guiding unit.
The full-state detecting unit of the paper sheet feed device according to the present invention stores a current value exceeding a reference value as a detection signal and determines that the paper sheet accommodating section is full based on, of such stored detection signals, a detection signal stored in a period of substantially the latter half of the paper sheet accommodating action period by the paper sheet guiding unit. Therefore, occurrence of interruption of acceptance of paper sheets due to an erroneous decision that the paper sheet accommodating section is full based on a detection signal stored during the process of accommodating the paper sheets, irrespective of the condition in which the paper sheets can be accommodated in the paper sheet accommodating section, can be avoided as far as possible. Thus, an accurate decision concerning detection of full-state can be made corresponding to the period for the paper money accommodating action of various types of paper money.
Consequently, according to the present invention, in a paper sheet processing device wherein various types of paper sheets are accommodated, a paper sheet feed device can be provided wherein the accommodating action can be performed in smooth fashion by performing accurate full-state detecting action for accommodated paper sheets.